Canning Blueberries Without Sugar

Canning Blueberries Without Added Sugar or Liquid

Fresh blueberries. Anfisa Kameneva / EyeEm / Getty Images

Next to freezing blueberries, this is a favorite method for preserving this scrumptious fruit. It preserves the flavor of fresh blueberries beautifully ​and has the advantage of being something you can store at room temperature (and not worry about if the power goes out).

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Prepare Blueberries for Canning

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Wash the blueberries in a colander and leave for a few minutes until they are thoroughly drained. Sort through them and compost or discard any that are under-ripe or shriveled. Also, compost or discard any stems.

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Bring Water to a Boil for Blanching

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While you are preparing the blueberries, bring a ​medium-large pot of water to a boil.

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Tie the Blueberries in Cheesecloth

Tie the washed and sorted blueberries loosely in a single layer of cheesecloth. It's most convenient to do this one pint of fruit at a time due to the narrow width of most commercial cheesecloth.

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Blanch the Blueberries

Blanching the blueberries before canning them helps to preserve as much of their flavor and texture as possible. This step makes it possible to use your canned berries later much as you would the fresh fruit - on yogurt, in pancakes and muffins, etc.

Use tongs to hold onto the knot end of the cheesecloth bundle of blueberries. Dip it into the pot of boiling water and gently swirl the bundle back and forth for 30 seconds.

You may see some juice stains appear on the cheesecloth. This is normal.

You...MORE can reuse the cheesecloth for subsequent batches of blueberries, or rinse and dry it for another future use.

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Load the Canning Jars with Blanched Blueberries

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Untie the cheesecloth bundle of blanched blueberries and loosely fill a clean canning jar with the fruit. For this method, it is not necessary to sterilize the jars. Screw on the canning lid. If you have more blueberries that you want to can, proceed with each pint as above.

Can the Blanched Blueberries

If you decide to do quart jars rather than pints, process them for 20 minutes.

The fruit may shrink a little and exude some juice during canning. This is normal.

Unopened jars of canned blueberries will keep at room temperature for 1 year. They are still safe to eat after that, but their quality will decline. Store opened jars of canned blueberries in the refrigerator.